The challenges of global climate change and energy security demands have made the development of renewable energy alternatives vital for our future. The use of direct sun radiation on solar panel(s) can potentially produce more than enough energy to meet world needs. As the price of solar power lowers and that of conventional fuels rises, the solar business has entered a new era of worldwide growth.
In order to bring solar technologies one step closer to par with petroleum, efficiency rates must improve.
Solar panel surfaces are made of high quality glass and the efficiency of the renewable energy they generate depends, among other things, on the cleanliness of the glass surfaces. Due to dust and other type of dirt on the solar panel, energy losses, in some cases, can reach over forty percent (40%). As most of solar parks are located in dessert areas where the sun radiation is intensive and the exposure to dusty conditions is high, cleaning the solar panels becomes essential. Currently, existing cleaning processes of solar panels are costly, labor intensive as well as consume high volume of water. Due to shortage of water in desert areas, panel cleaning using water is a major obstacle for the solar industry.
As explained and described in the system described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/917,285 (herein after the “core system”), the mobile cleaning section 136 (see FIGS. 1 and 2 of the '285 application) of the core system moves up a main frame while cylinders 124 are idle and moves down the main frame while the cylinders 124, along with the microfiber elements, rotate and clean the surface of the solar panels.
To improve the operational effectiveness of the system, it would be desirable to achieve an accurate predetermined descending speed of a mobile cleaning section 136. Additionally, it would be desirable to recover the energy invested in lifting mobile cleaning section 136 to the upper section of the main frame.